Day 1: Peru, Lima: Magic Water Circuit

After leaving Pucllano, the pyramid in the center of Peru, we looked at Google Maps and decided to walk over an hour to the the Magic Water Circuit. Why walk when we could have taken a ride share for only a few dollars? Mostly because we enjoy walking. Walking is a great way to understand a city, often walking takes us past landmarks we've seen in pictures. This walk, though, was not that. At no point did it feel unsafe, but it also did not feel fun. We discovered the drivers tackle traffic using rules that are foreign to us. Red lights are meaningless. Stop signs are rare. In order to keep going at full speed, simply beep a couple of times and stray dogs, humans, and cars will magically get out of your way (no pun intended despite our intended destination).

Google Maps guided us to the park, but not to the entrance of the water circuit. A tradition since July 2007, the Magic Water Circuit is a collection of 13 water fountains, mostly lit in colorful ways. It is a local festival. For the most part we felt like the only gringos there, then as we neared the piece de resistance, we heard tour guides speaking English to their charges showing them the best viewing place for the fountain show. Three times a night a show is displayed on the largest fountain. Based on what I could tell, it was about the history of the Peruvians, something everyone in the audience (except us) would be familiar with.

When I was researching the Magic Water Circuit there were two options: pay 5 soles (roughly $1.75 USD) and go on our own or $35 for a guided bus tour. I like that we went on our own. Really glad they accepted credit card payment because we had not yet exchanged any money. That changed the next day when we realized the bathrooms only accepted cash, which meant we left the Magic Water Circuit without being able to use the loo.

My favorite was walking through the arches of water. It seemed like something where you would get soaked, but I managed to mostly stay dry, so went through a second time. I loved listening to the laughter of small children as they went through, and watching couples walk through hand in hand. Don held onto my phone and purse to keep them safe. The path was pretty wet, so the assumption was I would leave wet, too. Don was not interested in going through.

Most of the other fountains were colorful. We made our way to the large fountain in time for the 8:15 show. Don asked, how would we know which one was where the show would take place? I said, the one with the crowd. Seeing the tour guides reinforced the location.

And so we waited. The people in the front recorded most of the 15-minute show. I took a few pictures here and there to remember the experience.

Okay, maybe more than a few, which is why this became a separate post. ;)

We had the same idea as most everyone else in the crowd, it was time to leave. 

The area was packed. Many taxi drivers offered to take us back to Miraflores (the district where we were staying), we politely told them no, only to have more insist. We walked away from them and did something we have not done since we were in Australia, we used the Didi app to find a rideshare. Didi is a lot like Uber, but I find them to be cheaper and offer better incentives for their drivers. For less than $5 we had a 25-minute ride to our hotel room. By then our feet were hurting, and we did not feel like walking through those parts of town again. The next day when we told Julio, our main contact in Lima, what we did, he chastised us for walking there in daylight. Hey-no harm, no foul! 

As we drove past, I saw there was a tunnel leading to the other side of the park with games. It seemed to have a carnival feel. At that point, walking any further was beyond anything we wanted to do. Hopefully sleep and a good breakfast would fix that. At 10 pm we realized we forgot to pause for dinner. Lunch had taken us over two hours between figuring out the menu and figuring out how to get a check. 

I think this was my favorite experience of the whole trip because we strayed from the tourist zone and spent time with locals and their families. No one (except the water fountains) was putting on a show for my benefit. They were simply enjoying themselves.

Between the 1 am flight and walking 24,518 steps, we were ready to crash.